Pennsylvanian Voices of the Great War

Letters, Stories and Oral Histories of World War I

“I guess you all are wondering where I am May. Well many miles away and settled at last and ready for some hard work. The sooner we get into it the quicker it is going to be over and all admit that it is up to America to finish the job and what I have been able to hear, they think it will be over in two or three months. Well the sooner the better now that we have come this far. Have sure traveled some and will have loads to tell you when I come home.”—Lt. W. Ellsworth Gregory. Letters from soldiers to local newspapers during wartime had been popular since the Civil War, but World War I marked the end of this practice, as most letters were highly censored to keep the names of cities and landmarks from the public in an effort to keep any military intelligence from the enemy in World War I. This work is a collection of letters, stories, and oral histories of Pennsylvanians in World War I. The letters and stories compiled here were published in local newspapers, and now give readers a rare look at what their writers experienced in the trenches, in the air, on the sea, in the hospitals, and on the home front during the war.